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The formation of the foreleg enables the tibia to be so closed on the sharp edge of the thigh as to amputate any slender substance grasped within it. The Stick-insect. The Phasmidæ or spectres, another class of orthoptera, present as close a resemblance to small branches or leafless twigs as their congeners do to green leaves.
Scrope, on the pugnacity of the male salmon; on the battles of stags. Scudder, S.H., imitation of the stridulation of the Orthoptera; on the stridulation of the Acridiidae; on a Devonian insect; on stridulation. Sculpture, expression of the ideal of beauty by. Sea-anemones, bright colours of. Sea-bear, polygamous. Sea-elephant, male, structure of the nose of the; polygamous. Sea-lion, polygamous.
They are constructed on the same general type as the mouth-parts of the Neuroptera, Orthoptera and Coleoptera, and except in being degraded, and with certain parts obsolete, they do not essentially differ.
In the males, on the other hand, they become further developed, and acquire their perfect structure at the last moult, when the insect is mature and ready to breed. From the facts now given, we see that the means by which the males of the Orthoptera produce their sounds are extremely diversified, and are altogether different from those employed by the Homoptera.
Now, the majority of the Orthoptera quit the egg in a form which is distinguished from that of the adult Insect almost solely by the want of wings; these larvae then soon acquire rudiments of wings, which appear more strongly developed after every moult.
But the larva of the Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, etc., never have more than nine abdominal segments, it is therefore not probable that they represent the original young form of the oldest Insects, and that the Orthoptera, with an abdomen of eleven segments, should have been subsequently developed from them.
With respect to the beauty of male butterflies, I must as yet think that it is due to sexual selection; there is some evidence that dragonflies are attracted by bright colours; but what leads me to the above belief is so many male Orthoptera and Cicadas having musical instruments. This being the case, the analogy of birds makes me believe in sexual selection with respect to colour in insects.
The insect, though in most respects related to the Neuroptera, appears, as is so often the case with very ancient forms, to connect the two related Orders of the Neuroptera and Orthoptera. I have but little more to say on the Orthoptera. The Chinese keep these insects in little bamboo cages, and match them like game-cocks.
Diversified structures possessed by the males for seizing the females Differences between the sexes, of which the meaning is not understood Difference in size between the sexes Thysanura Diptera Hemiptera Homoptera, musical powers possessed by the males alone Orthoptera, musical instruments of the males, much diversified in structure; pugnacity; colours Neuroptera, sexual differences in colour Hymenoptera, pugnacity and odours Coleoptera, colours; furnished with great horns, apparently as an ornament; battles, stridulating organs generally common to both sexes.
In his remarks "On the Origin of Insects," Sir John Lubbock says, "I feel great difficulty in conceiving by what natural process an insect with a suctorial mouth like that of a gnat or butterfly could be developed from a powerfully mandibulate type like the Orthoptera, or even from the Neuroptera." Is it not more difficult to account for the origin of the mouth-parts at all?
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